Five-name Friday: Boy name for Genevieve’s brother

You’re at a food truck, waiting for a shawarma sandwich. Waiting beside you is a friendly woman who happens to be pregnant. The two of you chat for a few minutes and, as you’re both handed your respective sandwiches, she mentions that she still can’t think of a name for the baby. Then she tells you the gist of what she’s looking for:

I’m looking for a name for the brother of Genevieve. Would like to downplay the Francophile and have nickname (traditional or unique) potential.

“Do you have any suggestions?”

You’re a name-lover, and you could potentially give her dozens of suggestions on the spot. But you’ve got to get going, so you only have time to give her five baby name suggestions before the two of you part ways.

But here’s the fun part: Instead of blurting out the first five names you come up with (which is what you’d be forced to do in real life) you get to press a magical “pause” button, brainstorm for a bit, and then “unpause” the scenario to offer her the best five names you can think of.

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you brainstorm:

  • Be independent. Decide on your five names before looking at anyone else’s five names.
  • Be sincere. Would you honestly suggest these particular baby names out loud to a stranger in public?
  • Five names only! All names beyond the first five in your comment will be either deleted or replaced with nonsense words.
    • EXCEPTION ALERT: This time around, because the request is wide-open and specifically mentions unique nicknames, you may include (if you want) up to two unexpected nicknames. For instance, I’ll allow “Theodore (Dorie),” but not “Theodore (Theo).”

Finally, here’s the request again:

I’m looking for a name for the brother of Genevieve. Would like to downplay the Francophile and have nickname (traditional or unique) potential.

Which five baby names are you going to suggest?

27 thoughts on “Five-name Friday: Boy name for Genevieve’s brother”

  1. Off-topic, so please delete if inappropriate.

    I would love it if you dedicated a blog article to the American obsession with nicknames. Being European this really baffles me. Over here we give our children the name we like best, whether this is a long name (i.e. Michael) or a short one (i.e. Mike). A nickname might pop up in due course but is not something that you force (or even think about) beforehand. If you want your child to be called Ella, why would you name her Eleonora only to shorten it to Ella? Like I said it baffles me and I would love to know the background of this phenomenon.

  11. Arthur (nn Archie)
    Edward
    Hamilton (nn Mills)
    Shepherd
    Oliver

    [Edited to conform to the 2 nickname rule. -Nancy]

  12. Alasdair (Dare)
    Charles
    Dominic (Nico)
    Philip
    Robert

    [Edited to conform to the 2 nickname rule. -Nancy]

  15. I didn’t read all the way through the rules initially! I thought they were the same as always. The question seems a little vague about what type of nicknames it wants because it says traditional or unique. I took that to mean either was fine. Genevieve is an “exotic traditional” name so I feel like other traditional names go best with it. Sorry if I did the whole thing wrong!

  17. Michelle, I’m sorry about the confusion. Changing the rules may not have been a good idea. I just didn’t think it would be necessary to include traditional nicknames, as they tend to be pretty well known already.

  20. Steven
    Gregory (Rory)
    Holden
    Antonio (Neo)
    Nathaniel

    [Edited to conform to the 2 nickname rule. -Nancy]

  21. Augustus
    Benedict
    Caspian
    Delano
    Everard

    It was only somewhat intentional ABCDE names.
    FWIW, I LOVE the new rules. :)

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